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For bugs in Firefox Desktop, the Mozilla Foundation's web browser. For Firefox user interface issues in menus, bookmarks, location bar, and preferences. Many Firefox bugs will either be filed here or in the Core product. Bugs for developer tools (F12) should be filed in the DevTools product. (more info)

User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040608 Firefox/0.8.0+
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040608 Firefox/0.8.0+
If FF is closed, it starts up quick (this isnt the error where Explorer returns
an error message after FF takes too long to open)
My browser settigns might have been weird before with MyIE2, but FF must be
missing some important registry setting for this to occur.
Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
Starting from IE, with everything working right, Start, Run,
http://www.google.com, pulls open IE.
Install firefox, make it 'default browser' as it asks and also attempt to do
again from preferences (it won't, it says it already is)
Start, Run, www.google.com ... it pulls open FF.
Actual Results:
And gives me a "Windows cannot find 'www.google.com.' Make sure you typed the
name correctly, and then try again... blah.

Instead of registry editing - you can also go the file associatiations dialog
box - find the HTTP protocol, and uncheck the 'Use DDE' box under Advanced.
BUT
both of those only apply to HTTP. HTTPS, FTP etc are also affected, and need to
be dealt with in a similar way.

Seeing this same/similar problem on Firefox 0.9, Windows XP Pro. When clicking
a link in an email client to launch Firefox, 2 windows are created. The first
shows the site as expected. The second, appears to be a downloaded version of
the HTML saved to the temp directory. So you'll see a path similar to:
file:///C:/DOCUME~1/USERNAM/LOCALS~1/TEMP/
This has been discussed in these mozillaZine topics:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=85056http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=85196
Another workaround is to do the following:
1. Open Explorer
2. Select Tools and then Folder Options
3. Select the File Types tab
4. Select Extension: (NONE), File Type: HyperText Transfer Protocol
5. Click Advanced toward the bottom of the window
6. In the Edit File Type window, select open and click Edit
7. Clear the DDE message box (which should contain "%1" or similar)
8. Click OK, Click OK
9. Repeat for File Type: HyperText Transfer Protocol with Privacy and FTP
I had opened a new bug after searching bugzilla which I am now marking as a
duplicate of this as this seems to be due to Firefox 0.9 misregistering as the
default web browser under Windows.
http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=246979

(In reply to comment #9)
> John, there's a very small number of people in the position to set blocking
> flags to + or -. However, this should stand so I'll leave it.
Apologies. I'd assumed it was just a vote for blocking and the bug owner would
have to approve it.

Ok, it appears that Firefox does register itself correctly if there is no
default browser set, correctly setting DDE Message blank, Application: FIREFOX,
DDE Application not running blank and Topic: System.
However, if another browser is set to something like IE or Opera, it appears
that Firefox does not correctly alter the DDE Message, Application and DDE
Application Not Running fields. This corresponds with registry keys:
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\Application
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\ifExec
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\Topic
As an example, if IE was the default browser, the root ddeexec key is left as
"%1",,-1,0,,,, which results in the behaviour outlined in previous comments.
The key should be cleared when Firefox sets itself as the default browser.

The solution described in #6 pretty much works, but now when I click on a link
in Thunderbird 0.7, it doesn't do anything, it just sits there. When I set IE
back as my default browser, clicking on links in Thunderbird works fine (opens
link in IE).

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.9
Not only does it pop up that error box when you enter a URL into the Run box,
but the default browser setting really does hardly anything at all. If you click
a link from another program, it opens in IE, rather than Firefox, even if
Firefox is already running.

It would appear that the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\ and all
subkeys should actually be cleared. At least, that is the apparent behavior of
Firefox 0.8. Clearing these does appear to fix the multiple windows and the
error issue. Firefox 0.9 does still appear to launch a new window for new links
rather than re-using the active one, as 0.8 did (though this may be intentional).
I have a .reg file that should fix the problem on affected systems:
http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/firefox_bug_246078.asp

Although I've experienced different problems than the previously mentioned, I
believe these are just different symptoms of this bug: When clicking on a link
in Thunderbird, FireFox does not open a new window but instead loads the URL
into an existing tab although ~useddeexec is set to false in chrome.
My system:
- Windows XP Pro with Service Pack SP1a
- Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.9
- Thunderbird version 0.7 (20040616)
My way to the bug:
- Uninstalled Firefox 0.8
- Uninstalled Thunderbird 0.7
- Installed Firefox 0.9 with the default stable installer package
- Installed Thunderbird 0.9 with the default stable installer package
- Checked if ddeexec is set to false
-> Problem described above
Comment #6 - http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=246078#c6 - fixed it
for me.
Note that I am not sure if this is related to this bug because I seem to be the
only one with these symptoms both in the mozillazine-thread
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?t=85196 as well as in the comments
of #246078.

In addendum to comment 26 (Wolfgang Frisch):
I'd uninstalled (via Add/Remove Programs) Firefox 0.8 before installing 0.9, but
imported my old settings. When I ran into the error dialogs, I did a complete
uninstall (Add/Remove Programs, then manually cleaned out *all* references to
firefox, phoenix and mozilla/MOZILL~ in the registry - which were copious - as
well as on drive). Finally, reinstalled Firefox 0.9 and avoided importing any
old settings. No dice. So I doubt it was anything you had control over.
Also, everyone should note that the workaround to get rid of the error dialog
*doesn't* fix the problem of spawning a new window for every url opened (via
links in other apps, opening a shortcut, etc). Firefox 0.8 correctly opened a
new page in the active tab (if the browser wasn't minimized) or in a new window
(if the browser was minimized). This is a pretty big loss of functionality, and
shouldn't get lost among the fact that the error dialog is bothersome.

(In reply to comment #28)
> Also, everyone should note that the workaround to get rid of the error dialog
> *doesn't* fix the problem of spawning a new window for every url opened (via
> links in other apps, opening a shortcut, etc). Firefox 0.8 correctly opened a
> new page in the active tab (if the browser wasn't minimized) or in a new window
> (if the browser was minimized). This is a pretty big loss of functionality, and
> shouldn't get lost among the fact that the error dialog is bothersome.
The new windows being launched is, arguably, a seperate issue, as it appears
that Firefox is not handling it in the same way as the previous version. The
issue at hand isn't just a bothersome error dialog, it is Firefox's failure, in
some instances, to launch links clicked in other programs at all. Comment 19
clearly states that this doesn't address new windows for clicked links and that
this behavior may be intentional.
If you are concerned with Firefox launching external links in new windows as
opposed to reusing the active window, I would suggest searching for a bug in
bugtraq and opening a new one if one does not exist. I do recall there being a
debate as to which behavior was correct (reuse active vs launch new) a while
back. Are we sure this didn't change between 0.8 and 0.9?

(In reply to comment #29)
> If you are concerned with Firefox launching external links in new windows as
> opposed to reusing the active window, I would suggest searching for a bug in
> bugtraq and opening a new one if one does not exist. I do recall there being a
> debate as to which behavior was correct (reuse active vs launch new) a while
> back. Are we sure this didn't change between 0.8 and 0.9?
I logged the "multiple browser windows opening" a week or two ago... still not
got any feedback as to whether this is a bug or a "feature"... I for one hope
its the former.
BUG 245747 if anyone is interested.

(In reply to comment #28)
> In addendum to comment 26 (Wolfgang Frisch):
>
> I'd uninstalled (via Add/Remove Programs) Firefox 0.8 before installing 0.9, but
> imported my old settings. When I ran into the error dialogs, I did a complete
> uninstall (Add/Remove Programs, then manually cleaned out *all* references to
> firefox, phoenix and mozilla/MOZILL~ in the registry - which were copious - as
> well as on drive). Finally, reinstalled Firefox 0.9 and avoided importing any
> old settings. No dice. So I doubt it was anything you had control over.
>
I agree. With Comment #26 I wanted to point out that C20 isn't related to this
bug. My test (part 1) should demonstrate that my initial problem is not
reproducable because it's been a result of erroneous configuration. I would
appreciate if someone deleted C20, C21 & C26 (if possible) because they don't
relate to #246078 but are rather confusing.

I'm getting slightly different problem here.
Uninstalled Firefox 0.8 and Thunderbird 0.6+. Installed Firefox 0.9 and
Thunderbird 0.7. After hosing my installs with Calendar and Enigmime/Enigmail
(Tbird wouldn't start up without not showing on screen and taking 50% CPU, and
Firefox was giving an error on all Flash enabled pages) I clean deleted both
Application Data directories after uninstalling and then reinstalled.
At this point I noticed that despite setting and checking again the Firefox
preferences whether default browser was set, and also in "set program access and
defaults," IE is being launched from Internet shortcuts on the desktop, as well
as from other applications (such as Trillian message windows).
I used the suggested .reg fix and it doesn't change the behavior. I deleted the
key that was deemed the culprit and no change either. I used a tip from
annoyances.org regarding not being able to change file icon for internet
shortcuts, and ended up losing the entry for File extension: (None) Internet
Shortcut in the File-Types list in Windows Explorer. Now after being suggested
to look for HTTP and HTTPS protocols (I'm assuming next to URL: IRC, etc) I
notice that I do not have these entries. I have also posted an entry to the
mozillaZine support forum link in the other bug that was reassigned to this one
(was: Outlook opening FF with error and two windows). This isn't a critical
thing, but it would make sense that if you make your browser "default" that
everything would actually open it to view shortcuts and http urls.

Sorry to spam but I wanted to add that I was also seeing the problem of windows
not recognizing http, because when I try to create a shortcut on the desktop and
type in http://www.yahoo.com it gives an error about not being able to find it
(but dragging the shortcut from the location bar to the desktop results in a
perfectly fine shortcut that it would have made, had the expected results occurred).

Addressing the bug that clicking on a URL in a Thunderbird 0.7 mail just does
nothing instead of opening a Firefox 0.9 window:
In my case, this bug reproducibly occurs only when either more than a single
profile is defined in FF 0.9, or when FF 0.9 is started with the "-p" option
even in case of a single profile. That is, the bug is clearly correlated with a
appearance of that little form for selecting a profile.
The same is true for Thunderbird 0.7 - in the "other direction": When the
profile selector should pop up in normal use, just no mail window comes when
clicking into "mailto:..." within Firefox 0.9.
As it seems to me that code for the profile selector is used both in TB and in
FF, code developers should look here ... All the other tips like registry hacks,
fresh profiles and re-definitions of HTTP in explorer options did NOT work for me.
The bug that two instances of FF 0.9 appear out of TB 0.7 was solved for me - on
another machine with only single profiles - by applying the reg-hack described
in this bug discussion.

(In reply to comment #41)
> There is a very similar bug to this one (dupe?) filed in the Browser product.
> See bug 137363.
Yep, but it looks like our default browser code is forked. It used to work fine
in Firefox 0.8, but somewhere between then and 0.9, something went wrong.

Ben Goodger has indicated to me that if someone can write a patch for this issue
by this Sunday morning, he'll consider taking it for 0.9.1. If not, it will have
to wait for 1.0beta.
He pointed out that somewhere between 0.8 and 0.9, we switched from using
winhooks to windowsshellservice, and that possibly looking for differences in
the way they're handled is a good place to start looking.
Maybe March 15/16 is a good place to start looking, based on this blog posting:
http://gemal.dk/archives/000497.html

This seems to be partly a DDE issue. I did a test scenario where I set
IExplorer as the default browser the allowed Firefox to setup as the default.
This is what I got.
Before scenario:
HTTP Protocol
Action: open
Application used to perform action: H:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~2\FIREFOX.EXE -url "%1"
Use DDE: true
DDE Message: [none]
Application: FIREFOX
DDE Application: [none]
Topic: System
After scenario:
HTTP Protocol
Action: open
Application used to perform action: H:\PROGRA~1\MOZILL~2\FIREFOX.EXE -url "%1"
Use DDE: true
DDE Message: "%1",,-1,0,,,,
Application: IExplore
DDE Application: [none]
Topic: WWW_OpenURL
Note that before the scenario this protocol worked fine for opening urls. No
error message. After the scenario it started to show the problems described in
the first comment. The thunderbird issue is non-existant. Firefox must of at
one time set this up correctly but this is not happening anymore?
Proposed partial fix.
Change DDE settings on HTTP, HTTPS, Gopher, and FTP Protocols to match the
following.
DDE Message: [none]
Application: FIREFOX
DDE Application: [none]
Topic: System
This at least fixes the error dialog. I don't know if it fixes the thunderbird
issue with the local downloaded version and the online version appearing at the
same time in 2 windows. I have seen it before but I cannot reproduce it
anymore. May of been fixed in thunderbird itself?
After reading all comments.... Damn. This was discussed previously but I will
leave what I was going to say to confirm their findings. See comments 6-13.
The Topic entry change probably isn't necessary but I changed Gopher, HTTP,
HTTPS, and FTP to match what I noted above and it works fine.

Installed FF .9 and set as default browser, replacing IE6.1, as others note in
these comments above.
Am running Office Outlook 2000 SP3 as e-mail client, OS i Win XP Pro sp1.
Since having installed FF, At any embedded url in an e-mail, clicking the link
always produces a dialog box opened in "My Documents", titled "Locate Link Browser".
If FF is open, it fires off another copy of FF even though I've got it set for
tabbed browsers. But it does go to the link.
If FF is not open at the time I select the link, it halts on the above
locate-link dialog.
Hope this helps close one more wrinkle.

(In reply to comment #55)
Curious. I have never had these problems in Forte Agent. Agent is set to use
Windows Registry Settings. At one time Firefox would open a new window but not
since installing tabbed browser preferences and setting it open external URLs in
a new tab.
On a fresh Windows 2000 install on my backup system I did notice that a lot of
the internet filetypes were still associated with MSIE, (.html and .shmtl among
others) even after installing both Mozilla 1.7 and Firefox 0.9.0+ (I don't
remember which build) That system now has Firefox 0.9.1 20040626. I just put
a copy of Agent that system and tried launching a URL and it worked the same
way. I wonder if an as yet unidentified application (MS Outlook perhaps?) is
diddling the registry settings for the default browser. It might also be worth
asking who is having this problem and of these people who used installer vs zip
builds. I use installer builds.

The registry setting that Outlook 2002 (XP) uses for determining the browser
used to open links is in:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\10.0\Outlook\Preferences\InternetBrowserPath
For Outlook 2003 I would presume it would be
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\11.0\Outlook\Preferences\InternetBrowserPath
Outlook 2000:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\9.0\Outlook\Preferences\InternetBrowserPath
Outlook 98:
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\8.0\Outlook\Preferences\InternetBrowserPath

(In reply to comment #12)
> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\
> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\Application
> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\ifExec
> HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\Topic
>
> As an example, if IE was the default browser, the root ddeexec key is left as
> "%1",,-1,0,,,, which results in the behaviour outlined in previous comments.
> The key should be cleared when Firefox sets itself as the default browser.
I found with 0.9.1 that I had to manually clear the ddeexec key, and that the
Application key still contained IExplore. Changing the Application key to
Firefox resolved both the Start>Run issue and the errors clicking in the Reading
Pane with Outlook 2003.
Joel

(In reply to comment #66)
> (In reply to comment #12)
> > HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\
> > HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\Application
> > HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\ifExec
> > HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\ddeexec\Topic
> >
> > As an example, if IE was the default browser, the root ddeexec key is left as
> > "%1",,-1,0,,,, which results in the behaviour outlined in previous comments.
> > The key should be cleared when Firefox sets itself as the default browser.
>
> I found with 0.9.1 that I had to manually clear the ddeexec key, and that the
> Application key still contained IExplore. Changing the Application key to
> Firefox resolved both the Start>Run issue and the errors clicking in the Reading
> Pane with Outlook 2003.
>
> Joel
Which more or less confirms what I put in on comment #49. Seems to be an issue
with the way Firefox is setting up DDE settings.

I'm also having similar behavior. It began after installing v.9 on XP Pro SP1.
My specific complaint is that Eudora suddenly forgot what to do when a page was
launched. The frustrating part is that FF launched the page, but Eudora also
asked for a program to handle links. Now I've selected FF, two windows open
when a link is clicked.
I've since installed v.9.1, and the problem persists.

we have an application that attempts to run the shell command
'start http://my.site.com/foo' this also exhibits this bug with firefox 0.9 for
the same reasons. firefox actually does start correctly, but ther is also an
error message 'windows could not find' yadayada

(In reply to comment #78)
> we have an application that attempts to run the shell command
>
> 'start http://my.site.com/foo' this also exhibits this bug with firefox 0.9 for
> the same reasons. firefox actually does start correctly, but ther is also an
> error message 'windows could not find' yadayada
that's because the start command is really equivelant to the run dialog box. It
will exhibit the same issues because of that though.

Summary: Firefox does a lousy job of making itself the default browser → URLs from other apps result in two Firefox windows or a window and an error dialog (Set as Default Browser does a lousy job creating ddeexec keys)

(In reply to comment #56)
> (In reply to comment #55)
Dan, I also used installer builds.
I see now that there are several other similar notes below, in reference to
the browser starting but the dialog looking for a url link handler also pops.
Even if there are registry settings I might correct to clear this, I'd opt to
wait for a FF build that clears these up - I trust the installer more than I
trust myself to find all of the places that I need to clear up.
There are some applications that I'd run that still fire up IE, it appears,
and do not give us an option to reset the browser app. I hope that these are
reacting to a 'dirty' setting still indicating IE, that had yet been cleared or
reset to FF. As I encounter them I'll check their registry and if I see
something that might be helpful to the FF team I'll note what I had seen.
--Bernie

I may be mistaken on this but I think the actual bug may lie in the handling of
the "advanced.system.supportDDEExec" pref. Previously, even though the default
action of HTTP links had the above mentioned DDE action checked, with
"advanced.system.supportDDEExec" pref set to "false", Firefox used to ignore the
DDE action. I believe this might be broken in Firefox, not how it registers
itself with the system.
PS: Also, choosing "Open in New Tab Always" for "Any page load from other
applications" in Tabbrowser Extensions warns you that it will disable
"advanced.system.supportDDEExec" in order to do this. This makes me think that
that functionality is broken.

I would also like to add the fact that Firefox uses short path names when
settings it's self as the defualt. If I manualy edit the regitrsy and use a
long path namem firefox asks me if I want to set it as default.
This becomes a problem when trying to built costum Windows Installer packages,
which support only long files names.

Now I have a new problem - when I click on an URL in an e-mail (Outlook 2000),
an Windows Explorer search window pops up to 'locate link browser'. At the same
time, FF opens the link w/o any problem.
-- Amir

(In reply to comment #26 and comment #49)
> Update to Comment #20 and Comment #21:
> John Haller suggested that I probably didn't use fresh profiles when upgrading
> to Firefox 0.9 / Thunderbird 0.7. After I realized that I did not do this for
> Thunderbird but used my TB 0.6 profile directory instead, I have tried and
> failed to reconstruct the problems which I mentioned above:
>
> - Uninstall Firefox 0.9
> - Uninstall Thunderbird 0.7
> - Delete "%APPDATA%\Mozilla; %APPDATA%\Thunderbird; %APPDATA%\Talkback;"
> - Restore pre-upgrade settings in Control panel\Folder options\File
> types\HTTP(s) to: DDE enabled, DDE message: ""%1",,-1,0,,,,
> - Install Firefox 0.9 Windows installer package: Gecko/20040614 Firefox/0.9
> * Start Firefox
> * Set as default browser: YES
> * Quit Firefox
> - Install Thunderbird 0.7 Windows installer package: version 0.7 (20040616)
> * Start Thunderbird
> * Set as default mail client
> * Create arbitrary test account
> * Write new mail with http://... url in it; File/Save As/Draft
> * Click URL
> -> Works! As expected, each click on the link opens a new Firefox window. So
> after re-checking "http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/releases/#install" my
> previous problems are obsolete.
>
> For further testing, I did this:
> - Copy "defaults.ini; prefs.js; tabextensions.js; user.js; bookmarks.html" to
> the fresh Firefox profile directory
> * Start Firefox
> - Install Tabbrowser Extensions by Shimoda Hiroshi / version 1.10.2004052901
> * Close Firefox
> - Delete fresh Thunderbird profile
> * Start Thunderbird
> * Cancel wizard
> * Exit Thunderbird
> - Copy "abook.mab; mailViews.dat; prefs.js; user.js; Mail\ News\" to the fresh
> (#2) thunderbird profile directory
> -> Still works fine! Instead of new windows, links now load in new tabs as they
> should.
>
> Note that "Control panel\....\File types\HTTP(s)" has still DDE enabled and the
> DDE message ""%1",,-1,0,,,, set.
I tried the above instructions (from comment #26) and it did not work for me at
all. In fact it was worse than before. However I tried the information that I
posted earlier which only requires going into Tools -> Folder Options -> and
Filetypes tab. In there I modified the HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, and GOPHER protocol
DDE settings. I found the following to be true. You must blank out the "DDE
Message" box and the "DDE Application Not Running" box. The second one will be
blank already except for FTP. You must also change DDE Application from
IExplore to FIREFOX. You can keep DDE enabled. This should make it open in new
windows now without causing the error. Do this for all prototcols that I
mentioned. DDE Topic can be either System or WWW_OpenURL as it doesn't seem to
matter (made no difference in my test).

I am experiencing a related problem - I'm not sure if it should be a separate bug?
Our site uses the pipe symbol in our URLs, and when a user clicks on one of our
links from Outlook, Firefox splits our URL on the pipes, and opens mutliple tabs.
e.g. http://example.com/script.php?key=123|abc|456
Firefox will split the URL on the pipe symbol, and open these tabs:
http://example.com/script.php?key=123
abc
456
(I do know the pipe symbol is used in the Options panel to set multiple home
pages, I don't know if that is related. I don't think that should be the
behaviour when links in emails are clicked.)

I searched in Google and found an explanation identical to comment #6 in this
thread. I finally understood that I need to look (in Folder Options->File
Types") for a line that has externsion "N/A" and file type "URL: Hypertext...".
Previously I was changing the file type HTML and of course it did not solve the
problem. I guess that there's still an issue the FF does not correctly register
itself as the app to open link in e-mail, but at least it can be fixed.

The registry patch will change the ddeexec keys for http, https, ftp, and
gopher protocols so that they will work properly. It will ONLY adjust those
keys. It drops them then rebuilds them to what I have found to be proper
values. So far DDEexec support in Firefox appears working properly.
To Developers: Verify that in source code that it is indeed setting up the
values to what I have determined correct.

(In reply to comment #131 and comment #130)
Comment #130:
> That registry patch fixed my problems as well. THANK YOU!Comment #131:
> <a href=http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=239561>Bug 239561</a> had a
> patch for this that seemed to work well.
To both: It is not intended as a permanent fix. For when the fix is in the
source then the test scenario should be to uninstall Firefox and setup another
browser as default (Internet Explorer for example) then install Firefox and have
it set itself up as the default browser and see if anything gets broken. The
registry patch will setup DDEexec Topic as System but it can be WWW_OpenURL
without affecting anything. I think that affects the handler but it seems that
Firefox is capable of using both.
To Phong: Yes. That patch is the start of fixing the issue it seems. All they
need to do is add in gopher and ftp protocols and make sure the keys get setup
right. ;)

Robert, I had tried the scenarios you mentioned. There seemed to be no negative
side-effects that I could find. I hadn't thought of looking at Gopher or FTP
however. I would imagine they should be easy to fix (following the same model).
I also am not too familiar with DDE so I'm not sure if in the long run that
change is what's intended.

Gopher and FTP are handled the same way and the registry patch posted handles
them. http, https, ftp and gopher all have a similar issue. I had actually
removed the dde key entirely from them all in my registry patch mentioned in
comment 86.

(In reply to comment #134)
> Gopher and FTP are handled the same way and the registry patch posted handles
> them. http, https, ftp and gopher all have a similar issue. I had actually
> removed the dde key entirely from them all in my registry patch mentioned in
> comment 86.
Yes. Removing DDEexec key entirely did fix it for some people but shutting it
off wasn't an option for me as Tabbrowser Extensions relies on it a bit. I had
to work at it a bit and find proper settings so that everything works as
expected. Meaning that now if you click on a link in the email client then a
new tab will open instead of a new window. You might need either Tabbrowser
Extensions or Tabbrowser Preferences installed for this to happen.

(In reply to comment #136)
> Leave your DDE settings alone and instead change the file associations
> application setting from "IExplorer" to "Firefox"! Worked for me.
Sorry this should have been leave the DDE message alone and change the DDE
application to Firefox.

Yes. Generally speaking that should be enough. DDE message was not regenerated
in my registry patch because I found it to not be necessary for everything to
function right. A leftover from IE but it can be left there too. No harm done.
For users of Windows XP you can do the following.
1. Open My Computer
2. Go to Tools -> Folder Options
3. Go to the File Types tab
4. Scroll down until you find "URL:File Transfer Protocol". "URL:Gopher
Protocol", "URL:HyperText Transfer Protocol", and "URL:HyperText Transfer
Protocol with Privacy" will follow. They will show "(NONE)" for the extension.
5. For each one, do the following:
5a. Select it and click Advanced
5b. Select "open" in the actions box and click Edit
5c. Down where it says Application if the box says anything besides Firefox
then change it to that. Otherwise let it go.
That's all that really needs to be done. Everything else probably can be left
untouched. See if that fixes it for anyone that hasn't already used my registry
patch.
Oh and I havn't posted my User-Agent yet so here it is.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040707 Firefox/0.9.2

This makes the other one obsolete. A change in the way the registry patch
works so that it doesn't just dump the keys.
This is what the patch does exactly.
Update FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, GOPHER protocols with the following changees
1. Change DDE Application to FIREFOX
2. Delete DDE Message
The removal of DDE Message is necessary. If you don't then changes to where
external links go does not work in Firefox when using Tabbrowser Preferences or
Tabbrowser Extensions. It will then always open in the current tab instead of
doing what you set in Tabbrowser Preferences and Tabbrowser Extensions. Both
rely on DDE for the function. If you delete the key then it will load in the
current tab, a new tab, or a new window depending on how it was set.
These are the ONLY things it will change. It will not affect anything else.

(In reply to comment #139)
> Created an attachment (id=153907)
> Registry patch for link problem
>
> This makes the other one obsolete. A change in the way the registry patch
> works so that it doesn't just dump the keys.
>
> This is what the patch does exactly.
>
> Update FTP, HTTP, HTTPS, GOPHER protocols with the following changees
>
> 1. Change DDE Application to FIREFOX
> 2. Delete DDE Message
>
> The removal of DDE Message is necessary. If you don't then changes to where
> external links go does not work in Firefox when using Tabbrowser Preferences or
> Tabbrowser Extensions. It will then always open in the current tab instead of
> doing what you set in Tabbrowser Preferences and Tabbrowser Extensions. Both
> rely on DDE for the function. If you delete the key then it will load in the
> current tab, a new tab, or a new window depending on how it was set.
>
> These are the ONLY things it will change. It will not affect anything else.
Interesting that you mention the part about deleting the DDE Messages. I went
"exploring" through those settings yesterday before you posted this amendment to
your fix, and I removed them on a whim. But now that you have posted your
message today, it got me thinking, and I decided to test one of the "features"
that was an effect of the DDE messages still being there. What I had been
experiencing that was actually helpful to me was that when I would click on
Javascript pop-up window link multiple times on the same site, I would get a new
pop-up window each time. This was very helpful for ESPN Gamecasts, because I
could now open multiple Gamecast windows without having to manually find the
actual Gamecast link for each game. Without the DDE message, all Gamecast
pop-up links are opened in the same pop-up window.
Well, now that I have removed the DDE messages, I can't just click on each game
anymore. So my questions are: What exactly was the default DDE message for IE
for http, so that worse case scenario I can type the message back in manually
for http links to regain this "bug/feature". Also, is there any alternative
that I can implement, that will allow multiple Javascript popup windows from the
same site?

(In reply to comment #140)
>
> Interesting that you mention the part about deleting the DDE Messages. I went
> "exploring" through those settings yesterday before you posted this amendment to
> your fix, and I removed them on a whim. But now that you have posted your
> message today, it got me thinking, and I decided to test one of the "features"
> that was an effect of the DDE messages still being there. What I had been
> experiencing that was actually helpful to me was that when I would click on
> Javascript pop-up window link multiple times on the same site, I would get a new
> pop-up window each time. This was very helpful for ESPN Gamecasts, because I
> could now open multiple Gamecast windows without having to manually find the
> actual Gamecast link for each game. Without the DDE message, all Gamecast
> pop-up links are opened in the same pop-up window.
>
> Well, now that I have removed the DDE messages, I can't just click on each game
> anymore. So my questions are: What exactly was the default DDE message for IE
> for http, so that worse case scenario I can type the message back in manually
> for http links to regain this "bug/feature". Also, is there any alternative
> that I can implement, that will allow multiple Javascript popup windows from the
> same site?
Odd. It may be intended behavior for the site but point me to the site and I
will see if an extension I have loaded will do it for you.
Anyways in the meantime you can put this back in for DDE Message.
"%1",,-1,0,,,,
That is exactly what was there. Just copy and paste it back in.
I logged into GMail (which uses javascript to open new windows) and I clicked on
the same link twice in a row. Each time it opened a new window. So I don't
really know what is happening.

the site is http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/scoreboard . Click on any Gamecast
link, then click on the same one, or another, it doesn't matter. That will
demonstrate the site designer's intended behavior, to open it in the same
window. While this is the correct behavior, it is not my desired behavior.

(In reply to comment #142)
> the site is http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/scoreboard . Click on any Gamecast
> link, then click on the same one, or another, it doesn't matter. That will
> demonstrate the site designer's intended behavior, to open it in the same
> window. While this is the correct behavior, it is not my desired behavior.
Odd. Because it opens each link in its own window for me. If I click on the
same link then it will open in the same window it originally did for me. If I
click on a different link then it will open in a new window. The same behavior
was shown in Internet Explorer. Don't know what extensions you have installed
but it sounds like something isn't right. Try it in Internet Explorer and see
what happens.
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7)
Gecko/20040721 Firefox/0.9.1+

(In reply to comment #143)
> (In reply to comment #142)
> > the site is http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/scoreboard . Click on any Gamecast
> > link, then click on the same one, or another, it doesn't matter. That will
> > demonstrate the site designer's intended behavior, to open it in the same
> > window. While this is the correct behavior, it is not my desired behavior.
>
> Odd. Because it opens each link in its own window for me. If I click on the
> same link then it will open in the same window it originally did for me. If I
> click on a different link then it will open in a new window. The same behavior
> was shown in Internet Explorer. Don't know what extensions you have installed
> but it sounds like something isn't right. Try it in Internet Explorer and see
> what happens.
>
> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7)
> Gecko/20040721 Firefox/0.9.1+
Yes, I have the same results as well. Each click generates a new window of its own.

(In reply to comment #142)
> the site is http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/scoreboard . Click on any Gamecast
> link, then click on the same one, or another, it doesn't matter. That will
> demonstrate the site designer's intended behavior, to open it in the same
> window. While this is the correct behavior, it is not my desired behavior.
As others have said, this has nothing to do with this bug. On my PC, it opens
its own window for each team, as it should. The Javascript call that opens the
window names it "gamecast" + hteam where hteam is the home team name. So, each
links should be in its own window. Perhaps there is something up with your
extensions or install, but I don't think this is related to Firefox registering
itself as the default browser incorrectly.

(In reply to comment #146)
> (In reply to comment #142)
> > the site is http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/scoreboard . Click on any Gamecast
> > link, then click on the same one, or another, it doesn't matter. That will
> > demonstrate the site designer's intended behavior, to open it in the same
> > window. While this is the correct behavior, it is not my desired behavior.
>
> As others have said, this has nothing to do with this bug. On my PC, it opens
> its own window for each team, as it should. The Javascript call that opens the
> window names it "gamecast" + hteam where hteam is the home team name. So, each
> links should be in its own window. Perhaps there is something up with your
> extensions or install, but I don't think this is related to Firefox registering
> itself as the default browser incorrectly.
I only replied back because I wanted to tell him that it was something else. He
mentioned that removing the DDE Message entry messed up the site but it seems
that something else did it so I was only letting him know to check something
else. The fact that others confirmed that the site works correctly on their
systems is just a side-effect.
I'm aware that it was a bit off topic to the bug.

OK people, sorry for the bug spam, as it pertained to his registry fix for the
bug, not the bug itself. OT for the bug but not for the thread, take that as
you will. Anyway, I have retested it, and the problem I had now works as
others have described, as it should, with or without the DDE message. So that
ends that. I don't know what it was I was seeing before.

I've just checked in a patch that will hopefully fix this bug. DDE is very
difficult to debug so I'm not positive that it'll work in all cases...I need you
guys to help me test. Many thanks to the people in this bug who provided the
registry workarounds.

The new behaviour with the patch checked in is quite odd (!?).
1. Start | Run
2. Type in www.cnn.com , hit enter.
3. Watch Firefox load www.cnn.com and then in statusbar, see "looking up
startdde" (it's doing an I'm feeling lucky search).
4. Watch it spawn a new window with
http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/redbooks/pdfs/sg244239.pdf as the contents.

Bugs still persists.
What is happening now is that there are 2 windows opened up. One that does an
autosearch for startdde and the other which opens the url I requested. Also DDE
support still doesn't appear to be working properly. I use Tabbrowser
Preferences which is configured to open external links in new tabs. With the
new version I am unable to get it to do that. It will still open in new
windows. Removing the "DDE Message" and "DDE Application Not Running" entries
completely fixed the problems but of course firefox doesn't think it is the
default anymore. So it will prompt. I ended up backing up to the previous
build I was using and applying my registry patch. Maybe the new patch wasn't in
this build yet.
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040724
Firefox/0.9.1+

(In reply to comment #158)
> Bugs still persists.
>
> What is happening now is that there are 2 windows opened up.
... Tabbrowser
> Preferences ...
Perhaps you should try this with a clean install and new profile, no extensions
(for now).

(In reply to comment #162)
> Perhaps you should try this with a clean install and new profile, no extensions
> (for now).
done that before, still doesn't work. i can have a clean system with a fresh
install of xp only, the problem still persist.

Okay, I've checked in a different patch. I think this one fixes all the problems.
Note that if you were using a nightly from the last few days--one that contained
the StartDDE error--you will need to delete the
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\<protocol>\shell\open\ddeexec\ifexec subkeys, where <protocol>
is all of HTTP, HTTPS, FTP, GOPHER and CHROME. However, simply running a new
build with my patch and then shutting down should take care of that for you,
since it should delete the entire ddeexec subkey on shutdown.

Just tested the latest tinderbox-build with the patch in.
WFM! (well mostly)
I first set IE as Default Browser then set FF as Default Browser, every link
etc. worked as it should. Great work!
Just one Glitch: The "Firefox should check to see...when starting" check was
"on", but there was no message at startup and IE was still the Default Browser.
"Check now" did the trick...

Well, since the 20040727 nightly build, I am now having problems with external
links.
When I click on a link in another app, a second Firefox window now opens.
Previously, with Tab Browser Preferences installed, the link would open in a new
tab. Now, TBP seems to have no effect. In fact, Firefox seems to overwrite
registry entries everytime it is started. I ran John Haller's registry entries
and that seemd to fix the problem. However, once I restarted Firefox, the
problem returned and the registry entries were back to the way they were previously.
I'm running: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7)
Gecko/20040728 Firefox/0.9.1+

(In reply to comment #172)
> Also the single window extension dont work anymore, dont know if its related.
> This since the patch in comment 151 was checked in. Using latest nightly branch
> build.
Yes; I can confirm that Single Window and Tabbrowser Preferences don't work as
expected. Single Window opens a second window when the first external link is
followed, and then alternates between the two windows for every subsequent new
tab. (TBP may do the same, I haven't tested it.)
WinXP Gecko/20040727 Firefox/0.9.1+

(In reply to comment #173)
> (In reply to comment #172)
> > Also the single window extension dont work anymore, dont know if its related.
> > This since the patch in comment 151 was checked in. Using latest nightly branch
> > build.
>
> Yes; I can confirm that Single Window and Tabbrowser Preferences don't work as
> expected. Single Window opens a second window when the first external link is
> followed, and then alternates between the two windows for every subsequent new
> tab. (TBP may do the same, I haven't tested it.)
>
> WinXP Gecko/20040727 Firefox/0.9.1+
Aha! That's what's causing this. I'm getting the same thing. Kind of a neat
effect, but not desired.
Using: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040728
Firefox/0.9.1+ (bangbang023)

(In reply to comment #169)
> Just one Glitch: The "Firefox should check to see...when starting" check was
> "on", but there was no message at startup and IE was still the Default Browser.
> "Check now" did the trick...
Someone filed this as bug #253329

tabbrowser prefs is the likely cause here (or TBE if people are using that).
See comments 171-174
those extensions may need to be updated to work with current Firefox, its not
necessarily a bug in Firefox, since it works without those extensions.

(In reply to comment #179)
> tabbrowser prefs is the likely cause here (or TBE if people are using that).
>
> See comments 171-174
>
> those extensions may need to be updated to work with current Firefox, its not
> necessarily a bug in Firefox, since it works without those extensions.
Well, I'm not sure about that. I just uninstalled Tabbrowser prefs and restarted
the 20040728 nightly. External links are STILL opening a new window. I think
this bug should definitely be reopened.

(In reply to comment #184)
> I've filed external link bug
> http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=253571
> Please send comments to g.teunis [at] wenus.cjb.net
> or vote for the bug :)
I see the same problems running Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US;
rv:1.7) Gecko/20040729 Firefox/0.9.1+ (Installer build with existing profile)
with TBP 0.6.8. You get two windows before you start getting more tabs. I've
sent a note to the maintainer of TBP.
I find this behavious curious because I applied the registry patch for this
problem a week or so ago and had no such problems with multiple windows with
either the nightlies I run or the mmoy build I run on my primary system.
BTW Your bug as already been marked as "resolved invalid". We need to dig some
and make sure that this isn't something that should be fixed in the extensions.
I tried unchecking USE DDE in TBP and that did not change the behaviour so
perhaps TBP is not using DDE. Is it possible that there is some junk left
behind in our registries that is causing this behaviour?

> I see the same problems running Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US;
> rv:1.7) Gecko/20040729 Firefox/0.9.1+ (Installer build with existing profile)
> with TBP 0.6.8. You get two windows before you start getting more tabs. I've
> sent a note to the maintainer of TBP.
> I find this behavious curious because I applied the registry patch for this
> problem a week or so ago and had no such problems with multiple windows with
> either the nightlies I run or the mmoy build I run on my primary system.
>
> BTW Your bug as already been marked as "resolved invalid". We need to dig some
> and make sure that this isn't something that should be fixed in the extensions.
> I tried unchecking USE DDE in TBP and that did not change the behaviour so
> perhaps TBP is not using DDE. Is it possible that there is some junk left
> behind in our registries that is causing this behaviour?
All "one window" extensions work on 20040726 (before this patch)
My situation
1. Cleaned profile
2. Cleaned programdir
3. Cleaned all registry entries (firefox and mozilla keys)
4. unzipped 20040729
5. install _any_ "one window" extension (checked SingleWindow, Window-Q, TBP)
6. always 2 windows, alternating on new tabs.
Now: when I unzip the 20040726 version over 20040729: the extensions work again,
I'm almost absolutely sure this checkin is busing the one window extensions.

(In reply to comment #187)
> I'm almost absolutely sure this checkin is busing the one window extensions.
It is, but - and this bit's important - this is not a bug in Firefox (see
comment 179). The extensions will have to be updated to account for this change.
(This means no more comments about broken single-window functionality in
extensions, please)

(In reply to comment #179)
> tabbrowser prefs is the likely cause here (or TBE if people are using that).
>
> See comments 171-174
>
> those extensions may need to be updated to work with current Firefox, its not
> necessarily a bug in Firefox, since it works without those extensions.
For the record, I didn't and don't have TBE or TBP installed. I do, however,
have Single Window 1.0 installed. Hope that helps in some way.

(In reply to comment #179)
> tabbrowser prefs is the likely cause here (or TBE if people are using that).
>
> See comments 171-174
>
> those extensions may need to be updated to work with current Firefox, its not
> necessarily a bug in Firefox, since it works without those extensions.
Could someone provide clues then on where we (the tabbed extension authors) need
to look to figure out what we need to fix?

(In reply to comment #174)
> (In reply to comment #173)
> > (In reply to comment #172)
> > > Also the single window extension dont work anymore, dont know if its related.
> > > This since the patch in comment 151 was checked in. Using latest nightly
branch
> > > build.
> >
> > Yes; I can confirm that Single Window and Tabbrowser Preferences don't work as
> > expected. Single Window opens a second window when the first external link is
> > followed, and then alternates between the two windows for every subsequent new
> > tab. (TBP may do the same, I haven't tested it.)
> >
> > WinXP Gecko/20040727 Firefox/0.9.1+
>
>
>
> Aha! That's what's causing this. I'm getting the same thing. Kind of a neat
> effect, but not desired.
>
> Using: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040728
> Firefox/0.9.1+ (bangbang023)
This seems to have come back with this build: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows
NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040802 Firefox/0.9.1+ (bangbang023)
I don't know how to reopen a bug, but this one needs to be reopened.

Using the standard test:
1)Set IE Default
2)Set Firefox Default
3)Start -> Run -> http://www.google.com
This still WFM, fresh selfbuild (8/2). You probably opened a pre-patched
version of firefox that garbled the DDE registry entries again.

(In reply to comment #195)
> Hal - Fix will be in the next release (1.0PR1) which is due out soon. You can
> fix it up temporarily - http://johnhaller.com/jh/mozilla/firefox_bug_246078.asp
I just now tried the third (most recent) patch on this site, and am still seeing
the problem. Extensions still the same as my previous posts (no TBP and no TBE).
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040803
Firefox/0.9.1+ (bangbang023)
Thanks.
Someone reopen this one please.

(In reply to comment #202)
> for the third (or fourth) time: Single Window 1.0 is pretty much the same as
> TBE/TBP wrt to this bug. This bug as reported is fixed.
I haven't changed Single Window, but the bug went away for a few days there and
then came back. Just wanted to add that comment in case anyone else has the same
thing or if necessary for future troubleshooting. Thanks.

I found this bug when considerring opeing a new bug for the following (there is
additional information regarding the registry info below that seems to be due to
the way this bug has been fixed). Should a new bug be opened, should this bug be
reopened, or is this something else?
Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7) Gecko/20040805
Firefox/0.9.1+
Clean Profile with no extensions.
Open regedit and navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\ and note that there
is a ddexec key
Start Firefox with IE set as default browser.
When prompted to make Firefox the default browser click ok.
refresh regedit and note that there is a ddexec key
Exit Firefox
refresh regedit and note that the ddexec key is removed
Start Firefox
refresh regedit and note that the ddexec key is added back
Go to start - run, type an url (e.g. http://www.google.com), and click OK.
An error message is displayed stating
Windows cannot find http://www.google.com/. Make sure you typed the name
correctly, and then try again.
To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.
Firefox opens http://www.google.com in spite of the error.
Workaround / hack for WinXP (I believe Win2K can use regedt32 to accomplish the
same results):
Exit Firefox.
refresh regedit and verify that the ddexec key is removed.
create a new key named ddeexec.
Select the newly created ddeexec key.
Select Edit - Permissions
Select the Advanced button
Uncheck Inherit from parent permissions the permissions... ad nauseum
Check Replace permission entries on all child... ad nauseum
To verify launch Firefox and then go to start - run, type an url (e.g.
http://www.google.com), and click OK.
No error message should appear.

Quick note for those who are having problems with TBE/TBP... If you go to
HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\HTTP\shell\open\command in regedit, removing the -url switch
(leave the "%1" and everything else) will make Firefox behave as you want it to.
Firefox will complain that it isn't the default browser now, but it still is.

Just a note that this bug is FIXED. It is a problem in the extension that the
author must fix. It is no longer a bug in Firefox and is now the expected
behavior. Tabbrowser Extensions now works properly with the latest builds
(verified). I have emailed the author of Tabbrowser Preferences and he is going
to be researching it in order to adapt it to his extension. Please do not post
any new comments to this bug report!

(In reply to comment #215)
> Geez, will SOMEONE reopen this one please? Look how many duplicates have come in
> since it was "fixed". Look at all the new posts since it was "fixed".
Can you READ or not? In case you failed to notice, the bugs duped to this one
after it was fixed share the same trait -> they are 0.9.x release builds, not
nightlies. Therefore, they DON'T have the patch yet. Anything new should be
talked about in bug 254525, because that is only ONE LIMITED part of DDE, and a
part that is now WFM for many people. Unless you can help pinpoint the cause of
bug 254525, I suggest you stop posting pointless comments.

I really can't see how people claim this is fixed. I'm still seeing the exact
behavior described in Comment #25, but I'm using 1.0PR 20040911.
There are no tab extensions installed at all, so this is completely unrelated to
them. (They were installed, but have been uninstalled as a matter of testing.)
If I clear the DDE settings back to "Firefox" / "System", the moment Firefox is
launched, it reverts to:
"%1",,-1,0,,,,
Firefox
WWW_URLOpen
...
This is not related to shortcuts and has nothing to do with bug 254525.

I also never had comment 183 addressed. Was this actually fixed on trunk? I
installed the latest trunk on a completely fresh install of Windows 2003 and did
not install any extensions. Opening URLs from other apps resulted in one
Firefox and one IE window opening. I then installed the latest branch build and
the problem went away. I then installed the trunk build again and the problem
remained gone. I had this exact behavior happen on a different machine on
Windows 2000 as well.

I'm experiencing this problem again, in 1.5 Beta. I can't open links from
Miranda IM message session windows, and when I type a URL (with http:// of
course) into the Run box it says it does not have a program associated with the
"file"...

(In reply to comment #247)
> I'm experiencing this problem again, in 1.5 Beta. I can't open links from
> Miranda IM message session windows, and when I type a URL (with http:// of
> course) into the Run box it says it does not have a program associated with the
> "file"...
Work fine for me with Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.0; en-US; rv:1.8b4)
Gecko/20050907 Firefox/1.4. I can't experience such an issue.

This is happening for me on Firefox 1.5.0.4 and previous versions of Firefox 1.5. If I launch an .htm file from Notetab with Firefox as the default browser and Firefox is not running, it will launch Firefox with two tabs: one blank and one with a WebCrawler search page. It works correctly if Firefox is already running.
Blake, please reopen this bug as I am getting complaints from users that I have switched to Firefox.

I am seeing it more frequently as well with Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.0.4) Gecko/20060607 Firefox/1.5.0.4 ID:2006060706 even with the extension installed. It almost ALWAYS does it now with .pdf files.

apparently the status whiteboard field wasn't conspicuous enough to you folks. i'll repeat it here:
[READ COMMENTS #216 & #217 BEFORE POSTING]
this bug is verified fixed. if you're seeing something that you think is a bug, it is something different. please open a new bug.

(In reply to comment #6)
> Another workaround is to do the following:
> 1. Open Explorer
> 2. Select Tools and then Folder Options
Does anyone have a fix for IE7? The "Folder Options" option doesn't appear in IE7.
Cheers
Canberran

Getting "generic" icon for Firefox HTML requests.
Tried everything: properties, registry changes, Tools/Folder,etc.
Not sure this is proper place but need help in
changing the generic icon to Firefox icon.

I second Gary. Whenever I update to the latest firefox, the problem resurfaces and I have to update my window settings. This happens whenever I enter in a URL from Start>>Run and also if I click through a URL in Outlook.

From the point of view of the casual (non-technical) user, this is a fatal bug and has DEFINATELY never been fixed. With every forced update the registry is set back to the defective settings.
The only fix is to disable the auto-update function of Firefox (it's inconvenient, agressive, and excessive anyway).

Can someone of you give a registry diff so we can have a look which registry values are changed? Therefor do a full export of the registry before and after an update. After that use any diff viewer to get the list of keys.

I am suffering the same problem. I had cleared all the DDE entries and all was well until this morning's Firefox upgrade, when the DDE entries were re-set, and the problem re-occurred.
I am running Vista, Firefox 2.0.0.11, Adblock Plus 0.7.5.3, British English Dictionary 1.19, Google Toolbar 3.0.20070525W, IE Tab 1.3.3.20070528, IE View Lite 1.3.1, Print Context Menu 1.1 and Skype Extension for Firefox 2.2.0.70
Any assistance gratefully received.

It's been a while since I've had a Firefox update - but sure enough, today I had an update, and the bug has re-appeared. I have a copy of the registry before and after if this helps (but not sure that I want to give this out without editing it first).

This bug is a dupe of so many of the same bugs it is getting crazy. I has happened for me ever since 2.0.0.0 (maybe before).
It is most definitely NOT fixed.... Stop closing the bugs as "verified fixed"
Every other dupe (this one included) of this bug suggests deleting the ddeexec keys from the registry entries below, but this is only a temporary fix. After your Firefox installation "auto upgrades" it breaks the registry keys again!
The problem is recreated when the upgrade adds the ddeexec keys with the (default) string value of "%1",,0,0,,,,
To fix (temporary, will break again on update or reinstall), remove the ddeexec entries from the following keys:
HKCR\HTTP\shell\open
HKCR\htmlfile\shell\open
HKCR\htmlfile\shell\opennew
HKCR\ftp\shell\open
HKCR\gopher\shell\open
HKCR\https\shell\open
HKCR\FirefoxHTML\shell\open
HKCR\FirefoxURL\shell\open
(May be more keys, but this is all I could find so far)
This is a verified issue with both Windows XP and Windows Vista (all versions)

If this is happening again, please file a new bug. Commenting in a bug that was fixed over three years ago isn't going to do much good. neither is spamming multiple bugs with copy/paste, that's more likely to just irritate people...

This bug was NEVER fixed. I've been monitoring it for years.
The only references anywhere in the bug to it being "fixed" are by people who manually deleted the ddeexec keys from the registry, at which point they said the error dialog stopped appearing. It had nothing to do with any checkin or fix by the Mozilla team.
One single person said that a patch worked for them, but many others said that it was of no help at all.

It happened to me just now, when I clicked the link to this bug comment from inside Outlook.
Also, anytime I get a Firefox update, I have to go into Windows folder options and disable dde.
From what I've seen, it's never been fixed. I use Firefox as my default browser on my home PC and my work PC. My OS is Windows XP.

As others have repeatedly noted...this bug is most definitely NOT FIXED!
It reappears every single time there's an update to FireFox 2.x. It may be fixed in FireFox 3.x (I'm not sure - haven't had time to test it).
The recent update to FireFox (2.0.0.12) has once again caused this bug to reappear on all my systems.
Perhaps it's an add-ons/extensions issue - I typically run DOM Inspector (1.8.1.12), Firebug (1.05), Google Toolbar for Firefox (3.0.20070525W), JavaScript Debugger (0.9.87.3), and Talkback (2.0.0.12).
Regardless of whether it's in the core product or an extension...I really don't care. It's still a very irritating bug, and many people seem to be affected by it.
Is there any way to re-open this bug?
The fact that it's had hundreds of comments after it was supposedly "fixed" clearly indicates that it is an ongoing problem that needs to be addressed.

(In reply to comment #268)
> If this is happening again, please file a new bug. Commenting in a bug that
> was fixed over three years ago isn't going to do much good. neither is
> spamming multiple bugs with copy/paste, that's more likely to just irritate
> people...
Is there any way to re-open this bug?
As many folks have noted, this bug has persisted for a long, long time despite the "verified fixed" status.
There's plenty of good information in the comments here regarding the nature and extent of the problem, along with temporary solutions and workarounds.
From my perspective as a professional developer, re-opening this bug would seem to be a better approach than opening a brand new bug.

I have just had exactly the same problem re-occur after the recent upgrade to 2.0.0.12. The problem seems to be so easy to reproduce that I am surprised that it has not been fixed. Perhaps it has not yet been accepted as a bug? How do we get this bug re-opened?

Commenting in this bug isn't going to help. The patch that landed in this bug caused other bugs and was a hack at best. Bug 389502 is a meta bug for this same issue... please only comment there if you have read this bug and the depending bugs and have new information to add.

Woow, another bug for firefox which hasn't been fixed for years and years. :(
In the past, when I came across this bug, deleting the appropriate ddeexec keys in regiedit used to resolve the issue, but with the latest update of firefox yesterday (version 2.0.0.15), this bug is back and CANNOT be resolved by deleting the ddeexec keys. However, shortcuts to internet paged from desktop work normally, but clicking on a link in an mail client gives the error:
Cannot find
'file:///C:/'http://..............\.
Make sure the path or Internet address is correct.
The browser window does not open when I receive the error.
The issue does NOT get resolved if I switch between firefox and internet explorer as the default browser. So even if I make Internet Explorer as the default browser, I still get this error message.
This error appeared as soon as I updated firefox to version 2.0.0.15 yesterday when only few minutes before links were working fine from my mail client.

(In reply to comment #281)
> Conquerz, could you provide a list of the applications with their version
> numbers you have installed on your system?
>
I don't know which ones you want, but the ones that are related to this issue are:
Vista Ultimate
Firefix 2.0.0.15
Internet Explorer 7
Pop Peeper 3.2

Chances are you have an application that is interfering with DDE messaging on your system or slowing down the launch of Firefox so DDE Messaging isn't initiated quickly enough. Why did you mention Pop Peeper? Did you recently install or update it?

(In reply to comment #283)
> Chances are you have an application that is interfering with DDE messaging on
> your system or slowing down the launch of Firefox so DDE Messaging isn't
> initiated quickly enough. Why did you mention Pop Peeper? Did you recently
> install or update it?
>
Because it's in POP Peeper that http links don't work when I click on them. I haven't updated anything other than firefox yesterday. And the links were working fine before the firefox update because I use pop peeper a lot.
When I point to a link, I see
file:///C:/'http://..............\'
in status bar, instead of http://........